4 held over killing of top Bangladesh police officer’s wife

Mahmuda Akhtar Mitu, 35, wife of Superintendent of Police Babul Akhtar, was killed by the three gunmen yesterday while she was on her way to drop her first-grader son to a nearby bus stop for school.

Dhaka |
Published: June 6, 2016 9:43 pm

Mahmuda Akhtar Mitu, 35, wife of Superintendent of Police Babul Akhtar, was killed by the three gunmen yesterday while she was on her way to drop her first-grader son to a nearby bus stop for school. (Source: AP)

Bangladesh police on Monday detained four suspects in connection with the killing of a top anti-terror police officer’s wife who was stabbed and shot dead by three bike-borne Islamist militants in the port city of Chittagong.

Mahmuda Akhtar Mitu, 35, wife of Superintendent of Police Babul Akhtar, was killed by the three gunmen yesterday while she was on her way to drop her first-grader son to a nearby bus stop for school.

The four suspects were detained from Mirarsari area at the outskirts of the port city and will be interrogated in connection with the murder, Chittagong’s police commissioner Iqbal Bahar told media.

They were detained hours after police claimed to have seized the motorbike used by three attackers from the port city.

Mitu’s husband, currently posted at the police headquarters in the capital, in recent months led operations in Chittagong against top members of banned militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said the killing was revenge for Akthar’s successful crackdown against local JMB militants that led to the death of the regional chief Mohammad Javed.

The murder was followed hours later by the machete killing of a Christian grocer at his store in the northeast — an attack later claimed by IS.

Meanwhile, the government announced a ban on motorcyclists carrying more than one passenger in an attempt to curb increasing numbers of deadly attacks by Islamic militants.

Bangladesh is reeling from a wave of murders of secular and liberal activists and religious minorities that have left more than 40 people dead in the last three years.

The government blames its opponents over the killings, saying they are trying to destabilise the country.